Namalycastis bait worm in the news

Dear all,
More than once, we talked about the same species of Namalycastis in the
Japanese mailing-list <benthos> in May and July. One of the Japanese
annelid workers use this worm for the chemical analysis of globic protein
and wanted to know its scientific name.
A Japanese bait company has imported the 'super cordelle' worm from a
French trading company since 1993 fall, at least I know. At the
beginning, this Japanese company contacted me if I knew the original
locality of this species, from where the company would like to import
directly more worms with lower cost. The worm were transported within
a kind of materials, which was another question posed me by the
company. It was just a kind of wet reddish wood chip (I could have no
more precise information). The worm could keep in this wet state without
seawater for more than 1 week. On the other hand, it could survive only
a couple of days in seawater.
>From this experience, I sent some hint words to the company. The worm
is a species of the genus Namalycastis; The worm may be come from
some wet land of a tropical area, such as old french colonies, like
Vietnam or french Africa, but may not be marine nor from European
area. If Chris has a clear evidence on the original locality, please
describe it. If it is on a hearsay evidence from anybody, please recheck
it.
I can not understand well the hysterical Ken Ringle's news "Gone Fission:
The 'nuclear' Worm". On the other hand, I think that the worm are more
safe than other imported annelid species in Japan in the viewpoint of
invasion. I am sure that it will not give a severe problem like the
American large mouth bass now found from all Japanese main lands. So
I am sure that it is not the ''biggest, badest, pinkest'' polychaete known.
Tomo Miura
--------------------------------------------------
Tomoyuki Miura, Prof. Dr.
Department of Biological Production
$B!!!!!!!!!!!!(B and Environmental Science,
Faculty of Agriculture, Miyazaki University,
1-1 Gakuen-Kibanadai-Nishi, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
Tel: +81-985-58-7227 Fax: +81-985-58-2884
e-mail: miurat at cc.miyazaki-u.ac.jp
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